Coinbase expands to India, South Korea, New Zealand and 8 other countries by launching crypto-to-crypto trading services

2019-04-18

Coinbase, a leading cryptocurrency exchange platform, announced that it has expanded its crypto-to-crypto trading service in 11 more countries, on its official blog. With the addition of these new countries, the reach of Coinbase has expanded to a total of 53 countries.

According to the blog post, Coinbase has opened its trading door for cryptocurrency enthusiasts in India, Mexico, New Zealand, South Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Phillippines, Chile, Columbia, Peru, and Argentina. Users will be able to avail crypto-to-crypto trading services such as buying and selling crypto on Coinbase Pro and Coinbase.com. In addition, customers can also buy and sell cryptocurrencies via the Coinbase app available on iOS and Android.

The official announcement read,

“Direct trading between cryptos is increasingly the new norm and in the last year has overtaken traditional fiat to crypto trading across the globe. Millions of Coinbase customers can now securely and quickly trade between different cryptos and send crypto off-platform at their convenience.”

More so, the blog stated that this was a part of the exchange’s mission of “creating an open financial system for the world”. It also stated that the cryptocurrency space is shifting from the “investment phase” to the “utility phase”, which would pave the path for new use cases. It further stated,

“This could take the form of decentralized versions of traditional financial services like lending or micropayments or truly novel crypto applications that no one has even thought of yet. The ability to convert from one crypto to another will form the backbone of this new decentralized economy.”

This news is extremely important for India’s crypto-community. This is mainly because of the ban placed by the Reserve Bank of India, the Central bank. Last year, the bank released a circular barring all the banks regulated by the central bank from associating with individuals and businesses involved with virtual currencies.

Due to the ban, some major local exchanges such as Zebpay had to shut down its operations. Even though Coinbase is providing only crypto-to-crypto trading, this does act as one of the most significant moments for the Indian crypto-community.

Along with this, the exchange also announced that its customers will be able to trade Augur [REP], one of the leading cryptocurrencies in the space, beginning today. Notably, this trading service will not be available immediately for customers in New York. The trade will be live on Coinbase.com and Coinbase app on iOS and Android.